The Demon's Shadow
by PenPatronus
Summary: Scott and Derek attack Oak Creek to rescue Lydia, but Kira's fox fire catches the whole place on fire. Meanwhile, Stiles wakes up alone in the woods with no memory of how he got there. Hurt / comfort, angst, drama, friendship. Written after "De-Void" but before "Insatiable."
1. Proof of Self

**Summary: **Scott and Derek attack Oak Creek to rescue Lydia, but Kira's fox fire catches the whole place on fire. Meanwhile, Stiles wakes up alone in the woods with no memory of how he got there. Hurt / comfort, angst, drama, friendship. Written after "De-Void" but before "Insatiable."

**The Demon's Shadow**

PenPatronus

Part 1 of 3

**Proof of Self**

Stiles' fluttering eyelashes felt like a centipede scurrying across the top of his hand. Liquid bounced off his cheeks when he coughed. Prying open his eyes, he found himself lying face down in shallow water that smelled like old pennies. His throat was dry but his teeth tasted like blood. Drawing a deep breath into his lungs felt like swallowing razorblades. Stiles coughed, accidentally inhaled some of the dirty water and choked on it. Coughing only made it worse so Stiles swallowed. There was blood in the puddle. He was thankful for the dim light. If he couldn't see how much blood there was he was less likely to vomit.

"Ugh," Stiles moaned. The whole world felt heavy. His whole body felt waterlogged. Slowly, in stiff, robotic movements, Stiles pulled his arms under his chest and, elbows trembling, pushed until he rolled over onto his back. Cold water went down his collar and into his ears but Stiles barely noticed the temperature.

The full moon glared down at him. A woodsy smell – bark and grass and dirt – filled his nose. Tree branches came into focus. An owl hooted in the distance. A sharp wind yanked goose bumps out of his skin. "What the hell…?" Stiles whispered. The wind brought a scent. Something nearby was burning. Stiles rotated his head left until his cheek landed on the soggy ground. There was an iron fence about a lacrosse field's length away, just beyond a dark tree line. Stiles saw rectangular shapes that might have been buildings with smoke billowing from shattered windows. "What the hell?" he repeated.

Someone screamed. A woman. He recognized the voice but couldn't place the face. Adrenaline made Stiles dizzy. He sat up and immediately regretted the movement when one of his ribs nudged a lung. Stiles yelped and bowed his head but remained upright. Another scream came from the buildings. Whether it was from fear, pain or surprise, Stiles wasn't sure. He was just sure that he had to help.

More pain greeted him when he climbed all the way up to his knees. The blood came from three places: a horizontal slice across his stomach, four stab wounds in the back of his neck and a bite mark on his left forearm. An animal bite.

A wolf bite.

"Scott," Stiles whispered. "_Scott_." Shadowy memories emerged. Stiles heard a werewolf howling but knew that it was in his memory, not in the forest. The last thing he remembered was that howl. That howl and a white room. That white room and a white stone in his hand. That white stone and a demon – _the_ demon – crouched across from him on the Nemeton. He saw Scott. He knocked the game over. The Nogitsune shrieked at him and then – then, darkness. Blackness. The next thing he knew he was waking up in the woods a hundred yards away from a burning building.

Flames appeared. They spouted out of the side of the building like fangs. Stiles saw his own footprints in the mud and started to crawl back towards the iron fence. More screams – several voices, now – and the clanging of swords and the zips of bowstrings and the cracks of guns all encouraged Stiles to get back on his feet. His friends were behind those sounds. They were the victims of those sounds.

Stiles half-jogged, half-stumbled towards the fence on muddy, uneven ground. He followed his own footprints clockwise towards a narrow gate no taller than his waist. Five feet from that open gate a figure appeared. Black cloak, black mask, black everything. An Oni, Stiles remembered.

"Oh, crap," Stiles gasped.

The Oni unsheathed its sword.

* * *

Derek couldn't breathe. Lydia's arms around his neck were that tight. He carried her blindly through the smoke filling the burning Oak Creek internment building. She sobbed into his shoulder and he only caught a couple words: _Stiles_… _fox fire_… _trap_… And then she really got her voice back and shouted "What about Scott? Where's Allison?"

"I'll go back for them," Derek barely managed to say. "I'll go back for them after I get you out."

Derek's eyes watered from the smoke. The last whiff of forest air vanished when the fires around them grew hotter, grew wider. The werewolf leapt over a pile of burning bunk beds and ducked under a wall collapsing like a Jenga tower. Sparks singed his skin. Lydia shrieked and tried to fold herself smaller against him. Derek lifted her higher in his arms and protected as much of her bare skin as he could.

"Left!" Lydia suddenly yelled. He looked down and saw her eyes wide and sure, and Derek obeyed. A left turn, a pivot around a burning table and a staircase came into view. Derek stumbled down it, kicked open the wrought iron gate at the bottom and sprinted out.

They emerged from the rear of the building, the section facing the forest. Derek swung Lydia onto her feet but kept his arms around her. He was surprised she stayed upright. He was doubly surprised when she grabbed his hand and led him towards a narrows gate in the outside fence. "What are you doing?" Derek yelled at her.

"Trust me!" she replied. "Trust the banshee. New motto: trust the banshee." Her feet kicked dirt up into his face as they ran.

"What about the others? They're trapped in there!"

Derek was about to pull on her hand to stop her when she suddenly halted right in the doorframe. A figure crouched on the ground a few yards away. A familiar figure clutching his head and wincing. It was Stiles. _A_ Stiles. One of the two demon-twin-Stiles running around Oak Creek. This Stiles slowly raised his eyes and asked, "Where – where did that thing go?"

"Stiles?" Lydia took a step forward but Derek yanked her back.

Stiles' hurt feeling showed on his face. "Derek, it's me."

"No way. We've been fooled too many times."

"Derek—"

"There's no way you can convince me!"

Suddenly, Stiles' eyes doubled in size and he shouted, "_Derek, behind you_!"

Instinct possessed Derek like a demon. With that instinct he shouldered Lydia aside and ducked under a sword that was so close to his head he felt the blade slice off a clump of his hair. Derek waited that quarter second until the sword's momentum opened up the Oni's torso and he squatted on his right knee and punched his left fist towards the being's stomach. The "ninja" expected it. It blocked the punch, twisted around Derek and slammed him into the iron gate.

Derek spit blood. Dizzy, vision blurred, he barely noticed the Oni march towards Lydia. She was on the ground with her arms braced behind her. Backpedaling cornered her against a tree. Tears escaped her eyes a second before she closed them so she wouldn't witness her own beheading.

Lydia heard the sound of sneakers through fallen tree leaves. She felt a breeze, witnessed the darkness behind her eyelids get blacker, and heard a gasp-grunting sound. She looked up just in time to see the Oni retrieve its sword from Stiles' stomach. Bizarrely, it thrust the sword into its own chest and then disappeared in a puff of inky black smoke.

"_**Stiles**_!" Derek bellowed. He raced forward and caught Stiles under the armpits right when his knees gave out. Lydia steadied Stiles' body as Derek folded to the ground with him, cradling Stiles in his arms.

The hole in Stiles' chest was as wide as Lydia's hand.

Stiles chuckled and blood appeared on his lips. "Believe me now?" he whispered.

**To Be Continued**


	2. The Lost Shadow

**The Demon's Shadow**

PenPatronus

Part 2 of 3

**The Lost Shadow**

"I'm sorry," Kira gasped. "I'm sorry, I thought I had control over it! I saw Stiles attack Scott and –"

"Just keep running!" Allison called from the stairs above her. Kira, Allison, Isaac, Scott and Chris Argent were running from the fire in the only direction that wasn't deadly: up. They reached the second floor of the building and, although it wasn't on fire, there was no way out.

Scott sprinted past a row of bunk beds and a pile of abandoned suitcases. He picked up some luggage and chucked it through a glass window. "Only way out!" he shouted to the others. Below, the smoke billowing from the front doors of the building nearly concealed the gravel driveway.

Isaac joined his Alpha. "I'll have to carry Allison. She'll break her ankle."

"I'll carry Kira." Scott looked at Chris and angled an eyebrow. "Can you make the jump?"

Chris was in the middle of switching out the cartridges of his gun. "Better than burning."

"What about the others?" Allison asked.

"I haven't seen Demon-Stiles since I bit him!" Scott said.

"Did it work?"

"I'm not sure."

"I think I saw Derek grab Lydia." Kira dragged her fingers down her face. "I – I think."

"What about the other Stiles?" both Chris and Isaac asked at the same time.

Scott shook his head. "Let's just regroup down there, all right?" One by one the friends jumped. They made it unharmed except for Argent's slightly twisted knee.

The smoke was so thick that Scott didn't see the Oni until he walked right into them.

* * *

Stiles' face was as white as the full moon's face. He stared at the hole in his body with curiosity. He looked like he was about to speak but his body suddenly convulsed. His back arched and his scream was only contained by his clenched teeth. Agony replaced the curiosity in his eyes and he clung to Derek so hard that he nearly ripped the werewolf's leather jacket.

Derek flashed his blue eyes at the moon and growled his grief. With that out of his system his fangs and claws retracted and he looked at Stiles and said, meekly, "You'll be all right. We'll get you to the hospital and you'll be all right."

Stiles trembled. "It's m-me this time. I swear. Really."

"We know." Lydia leaned over and kissed his cold cheek. A tear dropped from her eye and mixed with one of Stiles' tears and, together, they slid off his cheek. "The Nogitsune wouldn't have saved my life."

"I don't understand," Derek croaked. "How are you _you_ again?"

A subtle shake of his head was all Stiles could manage. "I remember Scott howling at me but… Maybe I remember Scott's living room?"

"You're the Stiles that came out of the floor?"

"What?"

Lydia pointed at the horizontal cut in Stiles' stomach just below the sword puncture. "This one is the original body." She sniffed but still sounded like she had a hell of a head cold. "Scott's claws are imprinted on the back of his neck."

Stiles' skin color started to shift towards gray. "Original?" he whispered.

Lydia exchanged glances with Derek, then explained. "Scott and I went into your head. When we came out you… you vomited out a second Stiles. When Scott wasn't looking you grabbed me and – and brought me here." She looked to Derek for the rest of the story that she missed.

Derek had taken off his coat and wrapped it around Stiles' body to try to slow the bleeding. "Scott thought – we all thought that the second Stiles was you, was the real Stiles. The demon ran off with Lydia and this second Stiles _was_ Stiles. It was you in every way from your scent to your sarcasm."

"Meanwhile I was still trapped in my original body."

Derek's jaw clenched. "That other Stiles. He tricked us up until… until he attacked. He killed Peter and the Twins so fast that there was just nothing we could do. We tracked him here and –"

"And he found us – me and the original demon – here," said Lydia. She sniffed. The moonlight glistened off of her tears. "They were going to kill me then the others got here. I couldn't see much. I saw Allison and Isaac and Scott. I saw Kira trying to do her fox fire tricks and she just set the whole building on fire. Next thing I knew Derek found me and picked me up. I don't know – I don't know if the others are trapped inside or not. And now…" Lydia gestured at the blood pooling beneath Stiles. She couldn't speak.

Stiles frowned. "He _lost_ it…"

Derek pursed his lips. He leaned closer and cupped Stiles' cheek. "What?" Derek felt Stiles' muscles completely relax as his entire body went limp.

Stiles stared, unblinking, at his friend. "A riddle," he whispered. "What does everyone have but no one can lose? That – that other walking body – that was the demon's _shadow_. But how did I…"

Suddenly, Stiles started pawing at the jacket on his stomach. "Don't," Derek sniffed. "Stiles, you're bleeding to death…"

"I should have bled to death by now," Stiles hissed. The faintest blush of color returned to his cheeks. "So why am I still alive?" He ripped the jacket off and all three of them gasped.

The sword puncture was healing. So was the stomach slice. So were the claw scratches and his broken ribs.

"How…?" Derek whispered. He sniffed, then grabbed Stiles' left arm and held it up to the moonlight. "He did it. _Scott bit you_."

The werewolf bite was healing, too.

Stiles gulped, then chuckled, and then grinned. He took a deep breath and his eyes changed color.

Stiles' eyes glowed _blue_.

* * *

Scott McCall was alone.

So many times in his life he'd been alone but hadn't actually _felt_ alone.

So many times he'd expected to die but hadn't _felt_ like it was inevitable.

Now he was going to die alone. Now he _felt_ like he was going to die alone.

Well…

Alone except for the demon wearing his best friend.

"I've been looking forward to this," the Nogitsune said with Stiles' mouth. With his hands casually tucked in his pockets, the Nogitsune politely stepped over Allison who lay spread-eagled on the ground outside the Oak Creek front doors. She still clutched her bow in her hand. Her dad was unconscious beside her.

Scott flashed his red eyes like a warning light. The Oni had backed off but the demon still approached.

"I should savor this." The Nogitsune poked Isaac's cheek with the tip of his sneaker. Isaac didn't move, so he walked around him. "I deserve it, don't you think? Chaos is hard work. Building bombs, manipulating allies, setting traps, tricking you over and over again, Scott."

Kira lay on her stomach ten feet in front of Scott. He couldn't hear her heartbeat over his own trying to hammer its way out of his chest. "How would you like to go?" The Nogitsune asked. He crouched down and grabbed a fistful of Kira's black hair. No reaction. "I could stab you. I could shoot you. I could… what's the term for slicing someone in half? Hmmm… Or should I snap your neck, Scott?" Stiles' hand released Kira. Stiles' feet walked closer.

Scott was on his knees in the dirt and likely to stay there. Likely, because the tendons in his legs were severed. Likely, because one of the Oni skewered his left thigh and his right arm got burned by rogue fox fire. Likely, because the most important person in the world to him was gone. He dove into battle with a 50/50 chance. He bit the Stiles he managed to get to, deep in the burning belly of Oak Creek. At that point, half-blind in the smoke, he couldn't tell if he bit Stiles #1 or Stiles #2, if he bit the one that kidnapped Lydia or the one who snapped Peter's spine. He wasn't even completely sure which one was half Stiles, half demon and which was pure Nogitsune. It was a mess. Everything was just a mess.

Scott didn't want to face life without Stiles. He couldn't.

The grinning Nogitsune crouched in front of Scott and tenderly patted his cheek. "Or should I possess you and make you watch yourself snap your friends' necks?"

"I love you, man," Scott whispered at his best friend's face. "If you're in there, Stiles, if you can hear me, Stiles, I'm so sorry."

**To Be Continued**


	3. Betas vs Demon

**The Demon's Shadow**

PenPatronus

Part 3 of 3

**Betas vs. Demon**

The demon leaned its head back and, slowly, no faster than dripping blood, iron fangs descended from the roof of its mouth. Nogitsune teeth that were going to rip out Scott's throat.

And Scott couldn't move. He decided on his final words. "If you can hear me, I love you."

At the furthest limit of Scott's hearing a voice said, "_I hear you_."

Half a second later a fist connected with the Nogitsune's iron fangs. The demon flew backwards over Kira, over Isaac, over Allison, and landed in a pile of its own limbs. Strong arms pulled Scott to his feet and then into a tight hug. Scott shook his head to clear his vision. He was nowhere near the desert but this had to be a mirage. Either a mirage or a miracle because when Scott focused he saw that those arms belonged to an emotional but smiling, blue-eyed Stiles Stilinski.

Scott swayed on his feet. "You're ok," he grunted.

"Yeah." Stiles was a walking bruise that was healing before Scott's eyes. "Better than ok. Get the others out of here. Derek and I will handle—"

A bullet ripped through Stiles' shoulder. The Nogitsune found Chris' gun.

"Oh, come on," Stiles gasped. He clutched his shoulder and they both started to run. They heard two more shots and then a scuffle. Derek had joined the fight. The boys scrambled behind the iron fence and a couple trees deep where Lydia waited.

Lydia helped Scott sit with his back against a tree. "Stiles, you have to use the Oni!" she shouted.

"What?" The gunshot started to heal, but slower than his other injuries. "What are you talking about?"

"That Oni back in the woods – the one that stabbed you – he stabbed himself."

"So?"

"So! He did that because he was honor-bound to. He did it because he thought that he'd accidentally killed his master! The Oni still think you're the Nogitsune! That means you can control them!"

Scott peeked through the iron bars and saw Derek fly across the compound. "If you two have a plan you better do it!"

"How the hell do I control those things? I'm not possessed anymore!"

Lydia pointed to where Kira lay ten yards inside the fence. "Her sword. Get Kira's sword!"

"Then what?"

"I don't know! Just – just try something!"

Stiles gulped. He wasn't used to dealing with such injuries and his mind was foggy. "Scott? Got a better idea?"

Scott shrugged. "Maybe just try to distract him, huh? Lydia and I will get the others to the car and—"

"No." Stiles' face turned from a wince to stone. "This ends tonight. This ends right now." Without a look back Stiles ran back through the gate and grabbed Kira's sword. His evil twin launched Derek over his head just then, and Stiles adjusted the weapon against his side and, though he couldn't catch Derek, he kept him from hitting his head.

"What's with the sword?" Derek managed through half-breaths.

"I'm off to slay a dragon, Derek, what do you think I'm doing?"

An absurd chuckle burst from Derek's chest. "Good to have you back, Stiles."

Stiles and Derek helped each other to their feet and stood side by side. Stiles pointed the sword and said, "Activate."

Derek's nose wrinkled. "Really?"

"Shut up." Stiles twisted the sword in his wrist and made the sound of a light saber. Neither of them were surprised when nothing happened.

"Stiles, if we die, I'm going to kill you."

"That doesn't make sense, sour-wolf."

"We live in Beacon Hills, Stiles. On purpose. Nothing in this town makes sense."

The Nogitsune wearing Stiles' body tossed the handgun aside. His shadow reached their toes, tossed by the burning building behind him. The clouds in the night sky covered the moon leaving the only light the orange-yellow glow enveloping the demon as he approached Stiles and Derek. "Stiles," he said, and grinned. "Blue eyes. Maybe Lydia will notice you, now."

"I summon the Oni," Stiles said under his breath. "I, um, order you to defend me."

"Do you know how pathetic you are?" the Nogitsune taunted. "You think being a werewolf will change who you are? Being a werewolf won't make you brave, Stiles. You're still just Scott's sidekick. You're still ignored by the woman you love."

"Attack!" Stiles hissed at the sky. "You sons of bitches get your asses here!"

"You think you're in Scott's pack?" The demon was close enough that they could clearly see the dark half-moons beneath his eyes. "You're a pet. The jester, at best. They don't need you. They just let you hang around because they feel sorry for you."

"Stiles?" Derek whispered.

Stiles paled. "I don't… I don't know. I don't know what to do."

"They feel sorry for you," the demon repeated. He was ten feet away. "You lost your mommy. Your dad is too busy to pay attention. Your best friend would rather be with a girl he met less than a month ago. The girl you love doesn't take you seriously. If you died, Derek wouldn't even notice."

The sword dropped to Stiles' side, the tip burying itself in the ground. "Stiles," Derek growled. "Stiles, don't listen to him."

"Isaac only puts up with you because of Scott. Allison just thinks of you as a human shield. Argent doesn't think your life is worth saving."

Derek slid in front of Stiles and spread his arms protectively. "Stiles, listen to me. We've all spent the past two weeks trying to save you. All of us. And you know why. You know we love you. You're the heart of this pack, Stiles.

Demon-Stiles and Derek stood nose to nose. "See, this is why I chose him," the demon said to Derek. "He's weak."

The demon's hand snapped out and gripped Derek's neck. Derek coughed, choked. His feet lifted off the ground. The Nogitsune was laughing and staring at his face when a blade suddenly passed beneath Derek's armpit and stabbed demon-Stiles through the heart. At the sight, Derek unsheathed his claws and ripped all ten fingers through the demon's throat. The Nogitsune dropped him and spit up blood. He reached for the sword to pull it out but both Derek and Stiles ran head-first into his stomach like raging bulls. They ran toward the light, toward the heat. When the other Stiles started to scream, and the two werewolves could no longer bear the flames, they pushed the demon as far into the building as they could and ran back to safety. Lydia and Scott were dragging Chris and Isaac over to the fence and Kira and Allison were climbing to their feet. The pack huddled together beneath the iron gate of Oak Creek and watched as the building burned up, the demon's screams mixing in with the hiss of fire and roar of smoke. The second floor collapsed and the first floor imploded. The noise stopped abruptly like the demon had been beheaded mid-scream.

When the smoke cleared, when the sun rose, there was only one Stiles Stilinski in Beacon Hills.

**The End**


End file.
